Imran Khan has successfully held a rally-cum-sit-in spread over 48 hours in Peshawar, when no other political party head could dare to hold such a meeting in Peshawar, or any other part of KP. However, only time will prove whether Imran Khan is able to check the influx of opportunists into his party, if things go his way. He has very good chances of filling in the vacuum created by the rapid decline in popularity of other parties, for which they alone are responsible.
The credibility of ruling PPP is as good, or as bad, as the credence of Babar Awan’s PhD degree. This party which once had a following in all four federating units needs to rethink their strategy. Frequent recourse to deploy the Sindh card, may actually relegate this party into a provincial party. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto won the hearts and minds of the people and never resorted to provincial politics. His power base was Punjab, which welcomed him with open arms.
There are too many financial scams involving key members of this party that have occurred in the last three years. Similarly, the PML(N) is in a crisis because it has failed to perform the role of a vibrant democratic party in the opposition. As far as the PML(Q) is concerned, it never was a party with a long term political objective but a conglomerate of opportunists with a history of having performed the role of second fiddle to every military dictator. The timing of this compromise with Moonis Elahi case further erodes the credibility of not only the PML(Q) but also of PPP.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
